The Feb. 27 Cartoon Caption Winner!

If there's something rotten in the state of North Carolina, our caption contest writers have plenty of ideas of what it might be.

The winner:

"I liked it better in the old days when we just had pork barrel."

-- submitted by Lee Baber of Charlotte.

We've dusted off our grand prize and will be sending it off to Mr. Baber -- the original Kevin Siers cartoon art with his caption on it.

The runners-up:

"And today's winning lottery numbers are . . . !"

-- submitted by both Kay Starnes and CharlesP. Murphy of Charlotte.

"He's still looking for law in all the wrong places."

-- submitted by JohnWester of Charlotte.

"Garbage in, garbage out."

-- submitted by both Deborah Moose of Charlotte and GeraldinePropst of Newton.

"He'slooking for Jim Black."

-- submitted by about a third of our contestants.

Thank you for all your entries. Here's a selection of some of the other better lines we received:

"Now here’s something we hope you’ll really like!"

"He's looking for his legacy."

"He's filing away Speaker Black's legal bill."

"He's looking for aluminum cans to sell so we can fund Jim's legal defense."

"He's just looking for his " I'm the education governor" campaign speech."

"I told him we needed to get a feel for what the Republicans think of our lottery plans."

"Looks like the Governor has his hand in Legislative affairs again."

"He's promoting 'politics as usual' as an alternative fuel."

"You sure this is the best way to pick a company to manage our lottery?"

"He's trying to get 'Fear Factor' to film in NC - but letting him drive another race car was way too scary for the producers."

If you'd like to add any of your own late captions, or if you'd like to discuss or comment on the judges' selections, feel free to click on the little blue "Comments" link just below this post. Please visit us again Monday for a new cartoon challenge.